Fun On this date in history...

ON THIS DAY

On May 23, 1934, bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot to death in a police ambush as they were driving a stolen Ford Deluxe along a road in Bienville Parish, La.

 

May 23:

1430 – Siege of Compiègne: Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compiègne.
1533 – The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
1568 – The Netherlands declare their independence from Spain.
1701 – After being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd is hanged in London, England.
1788 – South Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution as the 8th American state.
1846 – Mexican–American War: President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declares war on the United States.
1873 – The Canadian Parliament establishes the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
1911 – The New York Public Library is dedicated.
1934 – American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Black Lake, Louisiana.
1945 – World War II: Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Schutzstaffel, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
1949 – The Federal Republic of Germany is established and the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany is proclaimed.
1992 – Italy's most prominent anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three body guards are killed by the Corleonesi clan with a half-ton bomb near Capaci, Sicily. His friend and colleague Paolo Borsellino will be assassinated less than 2 months later, making 1992 a turning point in the history of Italian Mafia prosecutions.
1995 – The first version of the Java programming language is released.
1998 – The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland, UK with 75% voting yes.

Births:

1052 – Philip I of France
1100 – Emperor Qinzong of Song
1820 – James Buchanan Eads, American engineer and inventor, designed and built the Eads Bridge
1883 – Douglas Fairbanks, American actor
1896 – Felix Steiner, German Waffen-SS officer
1898 – Josef Terboven, German Nazi leader
1900 – Hans Frank, German lawyer and Nazi official
1910 – Scatman Crothers, American actor singer, dancer, and musician
1910 – Artie Shaw, American clarinetist, composer, and bandleader
1928 – Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress
1933 – Joan Collins, English actress
1956 – Buck Showalter, American baseball player and manager
1958 – Drew Carey, American actor and comedian
1965 – Charlie Hayes, American baseball player
1966 – Gary Roberts, Canadian ice hockey player
1970 – Yigal Amir, Israeli assassin of Yitzhak Rabin
1974 – Jewel, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actress, and poet
1978 – Mike Gonzalez, American baseball player
1978 – Scott Raynor, American drummer (blink-182)
1979 – Rasual Butler, American basketball player
1979 – Brian Campbell, Canadian ice hockey player
1979 – Kirk Saarloos, American baseball player
1980 – Gary Brackett, American football player
1981 – Tim Robinson, American comedian

Deaths:

1125 – Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor
1523 – Ashikaga Yo****ane, Japanese shogun
1524 – Ismail I, Iran ruler, founder of the Safavid dynasty
1701 – William Kidd, Scottish pirate (as mentioned above)
1868 – Kit Carson, American frontiersman and Indian fighter
1906 – Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian writer
1934 – Clyde Barrow, American outlaw (as mentioned above)
1934 – Bonnie Parker, American outlaw (as mentioned above)
1937 – John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist and philanthropist
1945 – Heinrich Himmler, German Nazi commander (as mentioned above)
1960 – Georges Claude, French engineer and inventor, created Neon lighting
1989 – Karl Koch, German computer hacker
2006 – Lloyd Bentsen, American politician
2010 – Princess Leonida Bagration of Mukhrani
2010 – José Lima, Dominican baseball player

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge, linking Brooklyn and Manhattan, was opened to traffic.

 

May 24:

1218 – The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.
1487 – The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel is crowned in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign.
1595 – Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library.
1607 – 100 English settlers disembark in Jamestown, the first English colony in America.
1689 – The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting Protestants. Roman Catholics are intentionally excluded.
1798 – The Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins.
1813 – South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador ("The Liberator").
1830 – "Mary Had a Little Lamb" by Sarah Josepha Hale is published.
1832 – The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference.
1844 – Samuel Morse sends the message "What hath God wrought" (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland to inaugurate the first telegraph line.
1846 – Mexican-American War: General Zachary Taylor captures Monterrey.
1856 – John Brown and his men kill five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.
1921 – The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti opens.
1930 – Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia
1935 – The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 at Crosley Field.
1940 – Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.
1941 – World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks the then pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen.
1943 – Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
1948 – Arab–Israeli War: Egypt captures the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gives Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later.
1958 – United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.
1960 – Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle begins to erupt.
1961 – American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.
1967 – Egypt imposes a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel.
1976 – The London to Washington, D.C. Concorde service begins.
1988 – Section 28 of the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, is enacted.
1991 – Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
1992 – The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests.
1994 – Four men convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993 are each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
2000 – Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.
2001 – Mountain climbing: 15-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.

Births:

15 BC – Germanicus, Roman commander
1686 – Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, German physicist, engineer, and glass blower, developed the Fahrenheit scale
1743 – Jean-Paul Marat, French revolutionary
1819 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom
1870 – Jan Christiaan Smuts, South African statesman, 4th Prime Minister of South Africa
1879 – H. B. Reese, American candymaker, created Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
1911 – Barbara West, English survivor of the RMS Titanic sinking
1913 – Joe Abreu, Portuguese-American baseball player
1938 – Tommy Chong, Canadian actor and comedian
1941 – Bob Dylan, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer
1944 – Patti LaBelle, American singer-songwriter, actress, and author
1945 – Priscilla Presley, American actress and businesswoman
1949 – Jim Broadbent, English actor
1955 – Rosanne Cash, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and author (daughter of Johnny Cash)
1959 – Pelle Lindbergh, Swedish ice hockey player
1963 – Joe Dumars, American basketball player
1963 – Rich Rodriguez, American football player and coach
1964 – Pat Verbeek, Canadian ice hockey player
1967 – Heavy D, Jamaican-born American rapper, record producer, singer and actor (Remember him?)
1971 – Kris Draper, Canadian ice hockey player
1974 – Will Sasso, Canadian actor and comedian
1978 – Bryan Greenberg, American actor
1978 – Brad Penny, American baseball player
1980 – Jason Babin, American football player
1987 – Guillaume Latendresse, Canadian ice hockey player
1988 – Artem Anisimov, Russian ice hockey player
1988 – Monica Lin Brown, American sergeant and soldier
2007 – Maru (cat), Japanese cat and internet celebrity

Deaths:

1153 – David I of Scotland
1351 – Abu Al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman, Moroccan sultan
1408 – Taejo of Joseon, Korean ruler
1543 – Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish astronomer
1949 – Aleksey Shchusev, Russian architect, designed Lenin's Mausoleum
1959 – John Foster Dulles, American politician, 52nd United States Secretary of State
1974 – Duke Ellington, American composer, pianist, and bandleader
1984 – Vince McMahon, Sr., American wrestling promoter and businessman, founder of WWE
2005 – Vivian Liberto, American author, first wife of Johnny Cash
2008 – Rob Knox, English actor

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 25, 1925, John T. Scopes was indicted in Tennessee for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.

 

Historic.

 

May 25:

240 BC – First recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
1420 – Henry the Navigator is appointed governor of the Order of Christ.
1521 – The Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw.
1659 – Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament, beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth of England.
1798 – United Irishmen Rebellion: The Carnew massacre, Dunlavin massacre and Carlow massacre takes place.
1878 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore opens at the Opera Comique in London.
1895 – Playwright, poet, and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons" and sentenced to serve two years in prison.
1935 – Jesse Owens of Ohio State University breaks three world records and ties a fourth at the Big Ten Conference Track and Field Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
1938 – Spanish Civil War: The bombing of Alicante takes place, with 313 deaths.
1946 – The parliament of Transjordan makes Abdullah I of Jordan their Emir.
1950 – Public Transport: Green Hornet disaster. A Chicago Surface Lines streetcar crashes into a fuel truck, killing 33.
1953 – Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conduct their first and only nuclear artillery test.
1953 – The first public television station in the United States officially begins broadcasting as KUHT from the campus of the University of Houston.
1955 – In the United States, a night time F5 tornado strikes the small city of Udall, Kansas, killing 80 and injuring 273. It is the deadliest tornado to ever occur in the state and the 23rd deadliest in the U.S.
1961 – Apollo program: U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces before a special joint session of the Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the Moon" before the end of the decade.
1962 – The Old Bay Line, the last overnight steamboat service in the United States, goes out of business.
1967 – Celtic F.C. from Glasgow, Scotland becomes the first ever Northern European team to win the European Cup; with previous winners being from Spain, Italy and Portugal.
1968 – Gateway Arch Saint Louis Gateway Arch is dedicated.
1977 – Star Wars (retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in 1981) is released in theaters, inspiring the Jediism religion and Geek Pride Day holiday.
1977 – Chinese government removes a decade old ban on William Shakespeare's work, effectively ending the Cultural Revolution started in 1966.
1979 – American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport killing 271 on board and two people on the ground.
1979 – Six-year-old Etan Patz disappears from the street just two blocks away from his New York City home, prompting an international search for the child, and causing U.S. President Ronald Reagan to designate May 25th as National Missing Children's Day (in 1983).
1985 – Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge, which kills approximately 10,000 people.
1986 – Hands Across America takes place. (God, did I HATE that song. Even at 7 I knew it sucked)
2000 – Liberation Day of Lebanon. Israel withdraws its army from most of the Lebanese territory after 22 years of its first invasion in 1978.
2001 – 32-year-old Erik Weihenmayer, of Boulder, Colorado, becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
2002 – China Airlines Flight 611 disintegrates in mid-air and crashes into the Taiwan Strait. All 225 people on board are killed.
2009 – North Korea allegedly tests its second nuclear device. Following the nuclear test, Pyongyang also conducted several missile tests building tensions in the international community.
2011 – Oprah Winfrey airs her last show, ending her twenty five year run of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Births:

1048 – Emperor Shenzong of Song
1458 – Mahmud Begada Indian sultan of Gujarat
1572 – Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel
1803 – Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, English novelist and playwright
1803 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and philosopher
1845 – Lip Pike, American baseball player
1846 – Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, daughter of Queen Victoria
1878 – Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, American dancer and actor
1898 – Bennett Cerf, American publisher, co-founder of Random House
1912 – Deokhye, Princess of Korea
1925 – Don Liddle, American baseball player
1926 – Claude Akins, American actor
1927 – Robert Ludlum, American writer
1935 – W. P. Kinsella, Canadian writer
1939 – Dixie Carter, American actress
1939 – Sir Ian McKellen, English actor
1944 – Frank Oz, English-American puppeteer and director
1959 – Julian Clary, English comedian and author
1963 – Mike Myers, Canadian actor and comedian
1964 – David Shaw, Canadian ice hockey player
1964 – Ray Stevenson, English actor
1968 – Kendall Gill, American basketball player
1969 – Anne Heche, American actress
1970 – Joey Eischen, American baseball player
1970 – Jamie Kennedy, American actor
1970 – Octavia Spencer, American actress
1973 – Demetri Martin, American actor, comedian, musician and writer
1973 – Molly Sims, American model and actress
1975 – Lauryn Hill, American singer-songwriter, musician, producer, and actress
1976 – Cillian Murphy, Irish actor
1976 – Ethan Suplee, American actor
1978 – Brian Urlacher, American football player
1979 – Caroline Ouellette, French-Canadian ice hockey player
1982 – Jason Kubel, American baseball player
1984 – Kyle Brodziak, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 – Shawne Merriman, American football player

Deaths:

615 – Pope Boniface IV
967 – Emperor Murakami of Japan
992 – Mieszko I of Poland
1085 – Pope Gregory VII
1261 – Pope Alexander IV
1555 – Henry II of Navarre
1946 – Marcel Petiot, French doctor and serial killer
1983 – Black Jack Stewart, Canadian ice hockey player
1990 – Vic Tayback, American actor
2000 – Nicholas Clay, English actor
2002 – Pat Coombs, English actress
2005 – Gregory Scott Johnson, American murderer
2007 – Charles Nelson Reilly, American actor, comedian, director, and educator
2007 – Laurie Bartram, American actress and ballet dancer

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 26, 1868, the Senate impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson ended with his acquittal as the Senate fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority required for conviction.

 

May 26:

47 BC – Julius Caesar visits Tarsus on his way to Pontus, where he meets enthusiastic support, but where, according to Cicero, Cassius is planning to kill him at this point.
17 – Germanicus returns to Rome as a conquering hero; he celebrates a triumph for his victories over the Cherusci, Chatti and other German tribes west of the Elbe.
946 – King Edmund I of England is murdered by a thief whom he personally attacks while celebrating St Augustine's Mass Day.
1293 – An earthquake strikes Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, killing about 30,000.
1328 – William of Ockham, the Franciscan Minister-General Michael of Cesena and two other Franciscan leaders secretly leave Avignon, fearing a death sentence from Pope John XXII.
1538 – Geneva expels John Calvin and his followers from the city. Calvin lives in exile in Strasbourg for the next three years.
1637 – Mystic massacre in the Pequot War: A combined Protestant and Mohegan force under the English Captain John Mason attacks a Pequot village in Connecticut, massacring approximately 500 Native Americans.
1647 – Alse Young, hanged in Hartford, Connecticut, becomes the first person executed as a witch in the British American colonies.
1783 – A Great Jubilee Day held at North Stratford, Connecticut, celebrated end of fighting in American Revolution.
1805 – Napoléon Bonaparte assumes the title of King of Italy and is crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in the Duomo di Milano, the gothic cathedral in Milan.
1822 – 116 people die in the Grue Church fire, the biggest fire disaster in Norway's history.
1828 – Feral child Kaspar Hauser is discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg.
1830 – The Indian Removal Act is passed by the U.S. Congress; it is signed into law by President Andrew Jackson two days later.
1857 – Dred Scott is emancipated by the Blow family, his original owners.
1864 – Montana is organized as a United States territory.
1865 – American Civil War: the Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, is the last general of the Confederate Army to surrender, at Galveston, Texas.
1896 – Nicholas II becomes Tsar of Russia.
1896 – Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
1897 – Dracula, a novel by the Irish author Bram Stoker, is published.
1917 – Several powerful tornadoes rip through Illinois, including the city of Mattoon, killing 101 people and injuring 689.
1936 – In the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, Tommy Henderson begins speaking on the Appropriation Bill. By the time he sits down in the early hours of the following morning, he had spoken for 10 hours.
1938 – In the United States, the House Un-American Activities Committee begins its first session.
1940 – World War II: Battle of Dunkirk – In France, Allied forces begin a massive evacuation from Dunkirk, France.
1948 – The U.S. Congress passes Public Law 557, which permanently establishes the Civil Air Patrol as an auxiliary of the United States Air Force.
1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first manned moon landing.
1971 – The Pakistan Army massacres at least 71 Hindus in Burunga, Sylhet, Bangladesh.
1972 – The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
1977 – George Willig climbs the South Tower of New York City's World Trade Center.
1983 – A strong 7.7 magnitude earthquake strikes Japan, triggering a tsunami that kills at least 104 people and injures thousands. Many people go missing and thousands of buildings are destroyed.
1991 – Lauda Air Flight 004, a Boeing 767, crashes in an area of western Thailand after a thrust reverser malfunction. All 223 people aboard are killed.
2001 – The CIA declassifies the paragraph 39 of the report about the Iraqi nuclear program from January 1991 in the Gulf War.
2004 – The United States Army veteran Terry Nichols is found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing.
2008 – Severe flooding begins in eastern and southern China that will ultimately cause 148 deaths and force the evacuation of 1.3 million.

Births:

1264 – Prince Koreyasu, Japanese shogun
1478 – Pope Clement VII
1566 – Mehmed III, Ottoman Emperor
1867 – Mary of Teck, queen consort of George V of the United Kingdom
1886 – Al Jolson, American singer, comedian, and actor
1895 – Dorothea Lange, American photographer
1907 – John Wayne, American actor
1913 – Peter Cushing, English actor
1920 – Peggy Lee, American singer-songwriter and actress
1922 – Troy Smith, American businessman, founded Sonic Drive-In
1926 – Miles Davis, American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer
1928 – Jack Kevorkian, American pathologist
1938 – Pauline Parker, New Zealand murderer
1939 – Brent Musburger, American sportscaster
1948 – Stevie Nicks, American singer-songwriter and musician
1949 – Pam Grier, American actress
1949 – Philip Michael Thomas, American actor and singer
1949 – Hank Williams Jr., American singer-songwriter and musician
1951 – Sally Ride, American astronaut
1954 – Danny Rolling, American serial killer
1958 – Margaret Colin, American actress
1960 – Doug Hutchison, American actor
1960 – Rob Murphy, American baseball player
1962 – Genie Francis, American actress
1962 – Bobcat Goldthwait, American actor
1964 – Lenny Kravitz, American singer-songwriter, musician, producer, and actor
1966 – Helena Bonham Carter, English actress
1966 – Zola Budd, South African athlete
1968 – Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark
1968 – Pat Kenney, American baseball player, wrestler, and agent
1971 – Matt Stone, American actor, animator, screenwriter, producer, and composer
1979 – Elisabeth Harnois, American actress
1988 – Damian Williams, American football player

Deaths:

451 – Vartan Mamikonian, Armenian warrior
604 – Augustine of Canterbury, Benedictine monk, 1st Archbishop of Canterbury
735 – Bede, English historian and theologian
946 – Edmund I of England (as mentioned above)
1647 – Alse Young, American woman executed for witchcraft (as mentioned above)
1651 – Jeane Gardiner, English woman executed for witchcraft
1703 – Samuel Pepys, English naval administrator and civil servant
1907 – Ida Saxton McKinley, American wife of William McKinley, 25th First Lady of the United States
1924 – Victor Herbert, Irish composer, cellist, and conductor, founder of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
1933 – Jimmie Rodgers, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1939 – Charles Horace Mayo, American medical practitioner, co-founder of Mayo Clinic
1943 – Edsel Ford, American businessman
1944 – Christian Wirth, German police and SS officer
1948 – Theodor Morell, German nazi physician
1969 – Allan Haines Loughead, American aviation pioneer and engineer, co-founded the Lockheed Corporation
2001 – Anne Haney, American actress
2005 – Eddie Albert, American actor
2008 – Sydney Pollack, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
2009 – Peter Zezel, Canadian ice hockey player
2010 – Art Linkletter, Canadian-American radio and television host
2012 – Rudy Eugene, American criminal and cannibal

 

On this day in 2007, NuWho classic 'Human Nature' was first aired.

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 27, 1964, independent India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, died.

 

May 27:

927 – Battle of the Bosnian Highlands: the Croatian army, led by King Tomislav, defeats the Bulgarian Army.
1153 – Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland.
1199 – John is crowned King of England.
1703 – Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg.
1883 – Alexander III is crowned Tsar of Russia.
1896 – The F4-strength St. Louis-East St. Louis Tornado hits in St. Louis, Missouri, and East Saint Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people and causing $2.9 billion in damage (1997 USD).
1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima begins.
1907 – Bubonic plague breaks out in San Francisco, California.
1927 – The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacture of the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make the Ford Model A.
1930 – The 1,046 feet (319 m) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public.
1933 – New Deal: The U.S. Federal Securities Act is signed into law requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.
1933 – The Walt Disney Company releases the cartoon Three Little Pigs, with its hit song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
1937 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, California.
1940 – World War II: In the Le Paradis massacre, 99 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are shot after surrendering to German troops. Two survive.
1941 – World War II: The U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency".
1941 – World War II: The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic killing almost 2,100 men.
1965 – Vietnam War: American warships begin the first bombardment of National Liberation Front targets within South Vietnam.
1967 – Australians vote in favor of a constitutional referendum granting the Australian government the power to make laws to benefit Indigenous Australians and to count them in the national census.
1967 – The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy is launched by Jacqueline Kennedy and her daughter Caroline.
1968 – Major League Baseball's National League awards Montreal the first franchise in Canada and the first franchise outside the United States. (the Montreal Expos)
1971 – The Dahlerau train disaster, the worst railway accident in West Germany, kills 46 people and injures 25 near Wuppertal.
1975 – Dibbles Bridge Coach Crash near Grassington, in North Yorkshire, England, kills 33 – the highest ever death toll in a road accident in the United Kingdom.
1980 – The Gwangju Massacre: Airborne and army troops of South Korea retake the city of Gwangju from civil militias, killing at least 207 and possibly many more.
1986 – Dragon Quest, the game credited as setting the template for role-playing video games, is released in Japan.
1995 – In Culpeper, Virginia, the actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition.
1996 – First Chechnya War: the Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire.
1997 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that Paula Jones can pursue her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton while he is in office.
1998 – Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
2006 – The May 2006 Java earthquake strikes at 5:53:58 am local time (22:53:58 UTC May 26), devastating Bantul and the city of Yogyakarta killing over 6,600 people.

Births:

742 – Emperor Dezong of Tang
1626 – William II, Prince of Orange
1756 – Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria
1794 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, American industrialist and philanthropist, founded Vanderbilt University
1818 – Amelia Bloomer, American women's rights activist
1837 – Wild Bill Hickok, American lawman
1894 – Dashiell Hammett, American autho
1907 – Rachel Carson, American biologist and writer
1911 – Hubert H. Humphrey, American politician, 38th Vice President of the United States
1911 – Vincent Price, American actor
1922 – Christopher Lee, English actor
1923 – Henry Kissinger, American politician, 56th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
1934 – Harlan Ellison, American author
1935 – Lee Meriwether, American model and actress, Miss America 1955
1936 – Louis Gossett Jr., American actor
1957 – Siouxsie Sioux, English singer-songwriter, musician, and producer
1961 – Peri Gilpin, American actress
1964 – Adam Carolla, American comedian and actor
1965 – Todd Bridges, American actor
1968 – Jeff Bagwell, American baseball player
1968 – Frank E. Thomas, American baseball player
1970 – Joseph Fiennes, English actor
1971 – Lisa Lopes, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress (TLC)
1974 – Jason Narvy, American actor
1975 – André 3000, American rapper, producer, and actor
1975 – Jamie Oliver, English chef
1984 – Darin Brooks, American actor
1990 – Chris Colfer, American actor, singer, producer, and writer

Deaths:

927 – Simeon I of Bulgaria
1444 – John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, English military leader
1541 – Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury
1564 – John Calvin, French religious reformer
1610 – François Ravaillac, French assassin of Henry IV of France
1707 – Athénaïs de Montespan, French mistress of Louis XIV of France
1840 – Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer
1918 – Ōzutsu Man'emon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 18th Yokozuna
1941 – Ernst Lindemann, German captain, victim of the German battleship Bismarck sinking (as mentioned above)
1945 – Enno Lolling, German SS physician
1947 – Ed Konetchy, American baseball player
1949 – Robert Ripley, American cartoonist, publisher, and entrepreneur founded Ripley's Believe It or Not!
1953 – Jesse Burkett, American baseball player
1960 – James Montgomery Flagg, American illustrator
1969 – Jeffrey Hunter, American actor
1994 – Charles Rodman Campbell, American convicted rapist and murder
2000 – Maurice Richard, Canadian ice hockey player, aka "the Rocket"
2006 – Paul Gleason, American actor
2007 – Ed Yost, American inventor, invented the modern hot air balloon
2011 – Jeff Conaway, American actor

 

C'mon baby, don't fear the Reaper

 

Deaths:
2013: Hector Garza, Mexican wrestler

Birthdays:
1955: Eric Bischoff, former Wrestling promoter and TV producer

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 28, 1984, President Reagan led a state funeral at Arlington National Cemetery for an unidentified American soldier killed in the Vietnam War.

 

May 28:

585 BC – A solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Cyaxares in the Battle of the Eclipse, leading to a truce. This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated.
621 – Battle of Hulao: Li Shimin, the son of the Chinese emperor Gao Zu, defeats the numerically superior forces of Dou Jiande near the Hulao Pass (Henan).
1503 – James IV of Scotland and Margaret Tudor are married according to a Papal Bull by Pope Alexander VI. A Treaty of Everlasting Peace between Scotland and England signed on that occasion results in a peace that lasts ten years.
1533 – The Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declares the marriage of King Henry VIII of England to Anne Boleyn valid.
1588 – The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, sets sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel. (It will take until May 30 for all ships to leave port).
1830 – President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act which relocates Native Americans.
1892 – In San Francisco, California, John Muir organizes the Sierra Club.
1934 – Near Callander, Ontario, the Dionne quintuplets are born to Oliva and Elzire Dionne; they will be the first quintuplets to survive infancy.
1937 – The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, is officially opened by the President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, D.C., who pushes a button signaling the start of vehicle traffic over the span.
1937 – Volkswagen (VW), German automobile manufacturer was founded
1940 – World War II: Belgium surrenders to Germany to end the Battle of Belgium.
1940 – World War II: Norwegian, French, Polish and British forces recapture Narvik in Norway. This is the first allied infantry victory of the War.
1942 – World War II: in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Nazis in Czechoslovakia kill over 1,800 people.
1952 – The women of Greece are given the right to vote.
1958 – Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro's 26 July movement, heavily reinforced by Frank Pais Militia, overwhelm an army post in El Uvero.
1961 – Peter Benenson's article The Forgotten Prisoners is published in several internationally read newspapers. This will later be thought of as the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International.
1964 – The Palestine Liberation Organization is formed.
1977 – In Southgate, Kentucky, the Beverly Hills Supper Club is engulfed in fire, killing 165 people inside.
1995 – The Russian town of Neftegorsk is hit by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake that kills at least 2,000 people, half of the total population.
1996 – The U.S. President Bill Clinton's former business partners in the Whitewater land deal, James McDougal and Susan McDougal, and the Governor of Arkansas Jim Guy Tucker, are convicted of fraud.
1998 – Nuclear testing: Pakistan responds to a series of nuclear tests by India with five of its own codenamed Chagai-I, prompting the United States, Japan, and other nations to impose economic sanctions. Pakistan celebrates Youm-e-Takbir annually.
1999 – In Milan, Italy, after 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece The Last Supper is put back on display.
2002 – The Mars Odyssey finds signs of large ice deposits on the planet Mars.
2008 – The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal formally declares Nepal a republic, ending the 240-year reign of the Shah dynasty.
2010 – In West Bengal, India, a train derailment and subsequent collision kills 141 passengers.
2012 – The discovery of Flame, a complex malware program targeting computers in Middle Eastern countries, is announced.

Births:

1140 – Xin Qiji, Chinese poet, military leader, and statesman
1371 – John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy
1660 – George I of Great Britain
1759 – William Pitt the Younger, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1841 – Sakaigawa Namiemon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 14th Yokozuna
1858 – Carl Richard Nyberg, Swedish inventor and industrialist, developed the blow torch
1888 – Jim Thorpe, American athlete
1892 – Josef Dietrich, German SS general
1908 – Ian Fleming, English author
1910 – Rachel Kempson, Lady Redgrave, English actress
1936 – Betty Shabazz, American educator and activist
1938 – Jerry West, American basketball player
1940 – Maeve Binchy, Irish novelist
1943 – Terry Crisp, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1944 – Rudy Giuliani, American politician, 107th Mayor of New York City
1944 – Gladys Knight, American singer-songwriter and actress
1945 – Patch Adams, American physician, activist, diplomat, and author, founded the Gesundheit! Institute
1945 – John Fogerty, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1947 – Zahi Hawass, Egyptian archaeologist
1947 – Lynn Johnston, Canadian cartoonist
1955 – Mark Howe, American ice hockey player (son of Gordie Howe)
1957 – Kirk Gibson, American baseball player
1957 – Ben Howland, American basketball coach
1962 – Brandon Cruz, American actor
1962 – James Michael Tyler, American actor
1964 – Phil Vassar, American singer-songwriter and pianist
1967 – Glen Rice, American basketball player
1968 – Kylie Minogue, Australian singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1971 – Ekaterina Gordeeva, Russian figure skater
1977 – Elisabeth Hasselbeck, American talk show host and author
1979 – Monica Keena, American actress
1979 – Abdulaziz al-Omari, Saudi hijacker of American Airlines Flight 11
1981 – Daniel Cabrera, Dominican baseball player
1981 – Eric Ghiaciuc, American football player
1982 – Alexa Davalos, American actress
1982 – Jhonny Peralta, Dominican baseball player
1986 – Joseph Cross, American actor
1986 – Michael Oher, American football player
1988 – NaVorro Bowman, American football player
1988 – Percy Harvin, American football player
1988 – Craig Kimbrel, American baseball pitcher

Deaths:

576 – Germain of Paris, French bishop
1357 – Alfonso IV of Portugal
1750 – Emperor Sakuramachi of Japan
1843 – Noah Webster, American writer and lexicographer
1849 – Anne Brontë, English novelist and poet
1971 – Audie Murphy, American actor and soldier, serious badass
1972 – Edward VIII, King of the United Kingdom
1998 – Phil Hartman, Canadian actor and comedian
2003 – Oleg Grigoryevich Makarov, Soviet cosmonaut
2007 – David Lane, American white nationalist, founding member of The Order
2010 – Gary Coleman, American actor

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 29, 1953, Mount Everest was conquered as Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and sherpa Tenzing Norgay of Nepal became the first climbers to reach the summit.

 

Did they die afterwards?

 

Nope

 

Yes, absolutely they both died afterwards.

 

May 29

363 – The Roman emperor Julian defeats the Sassanid army in the Battle of Ctesiphon, under the walls of the Sassanid capital, but is unable to take the city.
1453 – Fall of Constantinople: Ottoman armies under Sultan Mehmed II Fatih captures Constantinople after a 53-day siege, ending the Byzantine Empire.
1660 – English Restoration: Charles II is restored to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1677 – Treaty of Middle Plantation establishes peace between the Virginia colonists and the local Natives.
1727 – Peter II becomes Czar of Russia.
1733 – The right of Canadians to keep Indian slaves is upheld at Quebec City.
1790 – Rhode Island becomes the last of the original United States' colonies to ratify the Constitution and is admitted as the 13th U.S. state.
1798 – United Irishmen Rebellion: Between 300 and 500 United Irishmen are massacred by the British Army in County Kildare, Ireland.
1848 – Wisconsin is admitted as the 30th U.S. state.
1864 – Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico arrives in Mexico for the first time.
1868 – The assassination of Michael Obrenovich III, Prince of Serbia, in Belgrade.
1886 – The Pharmacist John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, the ad appearing in The Atlanta Journal.
1903 – In the May coup d'état, Alexander I, King of Serbia, and Queen Draga, are assassinated in Belgrade by the Black Hand (Crna Ruka) organization. (It was really gruesome, too)
1913 – Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring receives its premiere performance in Paris, France provoking a riot.
1914 – The Ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sinks in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with the loss of 1,024 lives.
1919 – Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity is tested (later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin.
1931 – Michele Schirru, a citizen of the United States, is executed by Italian military firing squad for intent to kill Benito Mussolini.
1932 – World War I Veterans begin to assemble in Washington, D.C., in the Bonus Army to request cash bonuses promised to them to be paid in 1945.
1942 – Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra record Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", the best-selling Christmas single in history.
1954 – First of the annual Bilderberg conferences.
1964 – The Arab League meets in East Jerusalem to discuss the Palestinian question, leading to the formation of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
1973 – Tom Bradley is elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles, California.
1982 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit Canterbury Cathedral.
1982 – Falklands War: British forces defeat the Argentines at the Battle of Goose Green.
1985 – Heysel Stadium disaster: 39 association football fans die and hundreds are injured when a dilapidated retaining wall collapses.
1988 – The U.S. President Ronald Reagan begins his first visit to the Soviet Union when he arrives in Moscow for a superpower summit with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
1990 – The Russian parliament elects Boris Yeltsin as president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
1999 – Olusegun Obasanjo takes office as President of Nigeria, the first elected and civilian head of state in Nigeria after 16 years of military rule.
2001 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the disabled golfer Casey Martin can use a cart to ride in tournaments.
2004 – The National World War II Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C.

Births:

1630 – Charles II of England
1736 – Patrick Henry, American attorney, planter, and politician, 1st & 6th Governor of Virginia
1874 – G. K. Chesterton, English novelist
1903 – Bob Hope, English-American comedian and actor
1905 – Sebastian Shaw, English actor
1906 – T. H. White, English author
1917 – John F. Kennedy, American politician, 35th President of the United States
1947 – Anthony Geary, American actor
1953 – Danny Elfman, American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor
1955 – John Hinckley, Jr., American attempted assassin of Ronald Reagan
1956 – La Toya Jackson, American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman, author, and activist
1957 – Ted Levine, American actor
1958 – Annette Bening, American actress
1959 – Rupert Everett, English actor
1959 – Adrian Paul, English actor
1961 – Melissa Etheridge, American singer-songwriter, musician, and activist
1962 – Eric Davis, American baseball player
1963 – Lisa Whelchel, American actress
1967 – Noel Gallagher, English singer-songwriter and musician
1967 – Mike Keane, Canadian ice hockey player
1975 – Jason Allison, Canadian ice hockey player and agent
1975 – Melanie Brown, English singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
1975 – Daniel Tosh, American comedian and television host (I HATE that guy!)
1976 – Jerry Hairston, Jr., American baseball player
1976 – Raef LaFrentz, American basketball player
1981 – Justin Chon, American actor
1984 – Carmelo Anthony, American basketball player
1985 – Nathan Horton, Canadian ice hockey player
1987 – Alessandra Torresani, American actress
1988 – Cheng Fei, Chinese gymnast
1988 – Steve Mason, Canadian ice hockey player
1989 – Riley Keough, American model and actress

Deaths:

1379 – Henry II of Castile
1425 – Hongxi Emperor
1453 – Constantine XI Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor
1814 – Joséphine de Beauharnais, first wife of Napoleon I
1866 – Winfield Scott, American general
1868 – Mihailo Obrenović III, Prince of Serbia
1873 – Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine (younger brother of Tsarina Alexandra)
1903 – Draga Mašin, Serbian wife of Alexander I of Serbia
1942 – John Barrymore, American actor
1946 – Martin Gottfried Weiss, German Schutzstaffel officer
1951 – Fanny Brice, American singer and actress
1979 – Mary Pickford, Canadian-American actress, co-founder of United Artists
1997 – Jeff Buckley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1998 – Barry Goldwater, American politician
2004 – Archibald Cox, American lawyer and educator, 31st United States Solicitor General
2004 – Samuel Dash, American co-chief counsel for the Senate Watergate Committee
2005 – John D'Amico, National Hockey League linesman and later supervisor of officials
2008 – Luc Bourdon, Canadian ice hockey player
2008 – Harvey Korman, American actor
2010 – Dennis Hopper, American actor and director